


Flying the Friendly Skies...

by AllHallowsEve



Series: Wincest Colored Glasses [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Demonic Possession, Denial, Emotions, Episode: s01e04 Phantom Traveler, Fear of Flying, Feelings of Frustration, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, M/M, The boys in suits, Wincest - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 05:09:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14804981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllHallowsEve/pseuds/AllHallowsEve
Summary: John is still MIA but the boys get a call in his place to help figure out what caused a plane to crash.Episode 4 as seen through Wincest colored glasses.





	Flying the Friendly Skies...

**Author's Note:**

> So still going strong with the idea of tackling every episode. So far so good. (Of course I am only 4 in so we will just have to wait and see.)
> 
> This work, as always, is unbeta'd so please point out any glaring mistakes.

Jerry Panowski was very good at walking and talking.  He was also one of the few survivors Dean had ever seen that just accepted the weird shit that happened in the world.  Most people either went into denial or became hunters themselves when the supernatural ripped a hole in the fabric of ‘normal’ for them, the way it had with Jerry.  But thanks to Dean and John several years back the Panowski family were still alive after a poltergeist had nearly tore their home apart and he spoke about it as if it were just another aspect of life.

Sam listened to him describe how Dean and their dad had saved the family, and it made him aware of just how big the hole in his soul was that he had carved out by being away from Dean at school.  To think of him off fighting a poltergeist and Sam not being there, it stole Sam’s breath.  They hadn’t really talked about the kinds of hunts Dean had been on in the years they were apart.  Sam wasn’t sure if it made his fear of something happening to Dean better or worse.

Sam was only partially paying attention while Jerry was walking and talking, losing himself in the painful knowledge of Dean having an entire life without him for years.  Sure that was Sam’s own doing, but now that they were back together in close quarters, it was beginning to feel like that part of life never happened, until things like this brought the missing time back into extreme clarity.

Who knows how much of Jerry’s story Sam might have missed delving into his own thoughts, if Jerry hadn’t shocked him into disbelief when he said Sam’s dad was “real proud of him,” for being away at college. Sam almost stopped walking he was so taken aback. 

Dean looked over at Sam, watching his face closely.  Dean wasn’t surprised at all by Jerry’s statement.  But he could tell it had really hit Sam hard.

John had never once told Sam he was proud of him.  Dean knew that had always been hard on Sam, especially as a kid.  John had missed every special occasion, every bit of recognition Sam had earned at school had gone unnoticed by their revenge obsessed father.  Dean had always tried to make it up to Sam by giving him praise, but he knew it wasn’t as good as if it had come from John himself.

The brothers tried to follow what Jerry was saying, but emotionally, his discussion about their dad made them both raw for different reasons.

They listened as Jerry explained why he asked for their help.  A plane went down, but the recording sounded off, sounded like there was something supernatural involved. 

When it became clear they were going to need new badges to get them into the NTSB protected area where the remains of the crash were being stored, they went to a local copy shop so Dean could work his fake ID magic.  Sam waited outside and normally he wouldn’t care how long it took because it would just give him more time to do research.  But the talk about Dean’s life without him over the past few years, and the thought that maybe his dad had been proud of him after all, had Sam on edge.

So he was relieved when he saw Dean beginning to make his way out of the copy shop.  That was until the pretty blond walked up and Dean had to give her an appreciative once over and flirty chuckle with his “Hi” to her as she passed him in the doorway.  Sam’s mood deteriorated a dark cloud.  He couldn’t stop the angry tone that came out when he threw his hands up and groused “You’ve been in there forever.”

Dean let the attitude slide off his back.  He threw a swaggered answer back at Sam, “You can’t rush perfection.”

Dean had no idea why Sam was so testy about the length of time he had taken to make the badges.  Sam knew it was important to make sure in painstaking detail that things looked right.  Plus Dean had been lost in his own thoughts while in the store.  He was worried about Sam.  He still wasn’t sleeping and he seemed to be always on edge now.  He didn’t want Sam to know how worried he was about him though.  So to hide all that he was feeling he had slipped easily into his Lothario persona as he walked out of the copy shop.  Even mouthing the word “wow” at Sam in response to the woman that walked by.

He had no way of knowing it was his own behavior that was causing Sam’s bad mood.

They both swallowed down their feelings, choosing to concentrate instead on the case at hand.  They had no idea if what they were looking at was a ghost, or a haunting, or what it could be.  The possibilities were too numerous to narrow it down without legwork.  So they took off to interview the survivors.

After interviewing a couple of people it was decided that they had to bite the bullet and go to the NTSB warehouse to get a look at the wreckage.  They had to look the part though if the badges had any hope of getting them into the secured area. 

Sam couldn’t keep his mind off of how good Dean looked in the new suit.  He also could barely keep his eyes off of him, had to stop himself over and over from allowing his glances to wander up and down Dean’s body.  Sam was afraid Dean would notice so he made fun of him saying he looked like a “seventh grader at his first dance.” 

Dean was so upset, embarrassed by what Sam had said but more than that.  He hated wearing stuff like this, but he couldn’t help but love how Sam looked in his matching suit.  Sam looked even more a man than the little brother Dean knew, as he wore the suit seemingly so much more at ease and comfortable in it than Dean felt.  Dean was uncomfortable, not only because of how out of his own skin he felt in this getup, but also because he was having to fight hard to distract himself in hopes of keeping the threatening boner at bay that Sam’s suit was causing him.

The suits and IDs paid off though because they waltzed in to the warehouse without the guard giving them a second glance.  Dean produced his EMF reader that he had made out of a busted up Walkman, and the bright shiny proud smile Dean gave as he explained it to Sam made Sam’s heart sore watching Dean’s expressive face light up with glee. 

Sam had to clamp down on how distracted he was by Dean’s intense attractiveness, especially in the damned suit.  So he again fell towards the low hanging fruit of making fun of Dean.  He watched Dean’s happy face fall in disappointment because Sam didn’t emit awe at the homemade device.  It twisted up Sam’s heart to see that sadness, but he couldn’t let Dean see how turned on he was by him, by his brain, by his gorgeous face, his bright eyes, his pouty lips.  _Ugh._   He hated hurting Dean’s feelings.  He just had to play the obnoxious kid brother to the hilt if he was going to get through this time in hell with Dean in that suit.

Dean swallowed down the disappointment, it hurt that Sam hadn’t appreciated how much time it took him to create the EMF meter from parts.  Why would he be impressed though?  Sam was brilliant.  Sam had been surrounded by brilliant people at Stanford.  Dean would never measure up to anything like that.

He focused on the task at hand.  Searching the wreckage with the piece of equipment he frowned down at, now seeing it for the janky put together piece of crap that it was.

Dean’s attention was caught by a strange substance all along the door handle of the emergency exit that one of the witnesses had reported seeing a passenger open, causing the plane to crash. 

Once they got the residue back to Jerry he checked it and said it was sulfur.  That narrowed down the possibilities of what they could be looking at.  After some research they concluded it had to be demon possession.  And after finding more sulfur at yet another crash, this time causing the death of the initial crash’s pilot, Sam found crashes going back in history for years, all with one thing in common.  They crashed 40 minutes into the flight and the boys recognized that as biblically significant.  It had to be a demon doing this. 

They further clarified the info and realized that the demon was going after survivors from the initial crash they had been called about.  After contacting the others, the boys realized there was only one survivor in danger, Amanda Walker.  She was a flight attendant who was about to get in the air again.  They drove at breakneck speed and managed to get to the airport just in time to board but Dean balked at that plan. 

Sam had never seen his brother this worried before.  He had had no idea Dean was afraid of flying.  He tried to convince his brother to let him take this demon on himself, but Dean, of course, was having none of that.  But it didn’t make it any easier for Dean to deal with the fear roiling through his gut as they sat waiting on board for the flight to take off.

Sam couldn’t help finding Dean’s discomfort endearing, and couldn’t help but tease his big brother mercilessly at first.  All his life, Dean had been untouchable.  He was the best at shooting, at fighting, at killing things, but to see him have this unexpected fear, it just caught Sam completely off guard.

In the face of having to go up against a demon, something that most hunters would find incredibly daunting, Dean was taken down a peg, not by the idea of facing the demon, but by flying.  Sam couldn’t control his heart’s desire to both ridicule his brother, but at the same time, desperately wanting to take him in his arms and sooth his fears. Especially when he realized Dean was self soothing by humming Metallica under his breath.  Sam found it the most adorable thing Dean had ever done.

Unfortunately Sam had no time to enjoy Dean’s discomfort.  Dean had to pull it together because by the time the flight evened out enough for them to be allowed to walk around they only had 32 minutes to find whomever the demon had possessed and exorcise it.

Dean came back to the seat next to Sam after checking to see if the demon had possessed Amanda, the stewardess from the first flight, with news that it wasn’t her.  Just as he managed to sit they hit more turbulence and Dean freaked out.  He knew it was irrational, he knew they had a job to do and he had to focus on that but the fear was climbing up his spine and he had no control over it.  He held on to the seat with a death grip while Sam watched him in concern.

Sam tried to talk him down, with a calm voice and compassion, which only infuriated Dean and made his panic worsen.  So Sam took another tactic entirely.  He grabbed Dean by the arm, squeezing hard, and in his most stern commanding voice said, “Listen, if you’re panicked, you’re wide open to demonic possession, so you need to calm yourself down right now.”

Dean felt something inside him calm immediately.  He had never seen this side of Sam before.  He had never heard Sam be so controlled and in charge before.  He wasn’t sure why but he began to exhale in long breaths. 

Sam sat back and said “Good.”

That one word and the way Sam looked approvingly at Dean, took Dean to an even calmer place within himself.  He had no idea what was going on or why he was having such an intense reaction to Sam right now.  He tried not to think about it and just focused on breathing while Sam explained the exorcism he had found in their Dad’s journal.

Dean got up and aimed all his nervous energy on his EMF while he went up and down the aisles searching for the possessed person.  He went through all the passengers and had no hits whatsoever.  He was trying to convince Sam that maybe they were wrong when the bathroom door opened in front of them and the copilot walked out.  The EMF reader went crazy. 

Dean took a deep breath and whispered “Christo.” 

The copilot turned back and stared at him with ebony eyes before locking himself into the cockpit, out of the boys reach.

They had less than 15 minutes to somehow get the exorcism to work and banish the thing back to hell before the entire plane went down.

They had no choice but to go confess everything to Amanda .  It was never easy reading in a civilian during a hunt but this was the quickest messiest explanation they had ever had to give and they could barely believe that she agreed to help.  Lucky for them she had seen the possessed man on the plane that had crashed which gave her a reason to take them at their word, no matter how scared she was to trust them. 

She lured the copilot back to the rear of the plane where the boys were hiding.  They subdued him and managed to perform the first part of the exorcism, but not before the demon taunted Sam with knowing what had happened to Jess.  The demon left the copilot but receded into the inner workings of the plane causing it to take a nose dive towards the ground.

Sam launched himself out into the main cabin to retrieve the journal from where the demon had kicked it during the exorcism.  Dean was thrown backwards against one of the rear exit doors.  He began screaming as his fear ramped up to a level of hysterics the likes he had never experienced in all his time as a hunter.

Sam heard his brother’s frantic panicked outcry, but he knew he had to finish the exorcism.  It hurt every fiber of his being to not go and be with Dean but the only way to save him was to send the demon back to hell.

Sam tried to steel his own nerves in the face of the plane’s freefall and just focus on reading the second part of the exorcism.  It must have worked because the plane evened out and everything seemed to return to normal.

Sam turned to see Dean in the doorway leading to the rear area of the plane looking disheveled and out of breath.  They stared at each other in disbelief.

Dean had never been so glad to feel the ground underneath his feet as he was when they landed and he got to put his feet solidly onto the floor of the airport.  His fears immediately dissipated and his mind turned to concern for Sam.  His brother had been wearing his angry at the world face since they landed. He could tell by Sam’s hunched shoulders and frown that he didn’t believe Dean when he said that demons read minds and lie, which had to be what happened to make the demon know about Jess. 

Sam didn’t think that was all it was.  Sam felt so guilty over Jess’s death.  As soon as the demon had confronted him about it, all the pain and fear of her death being his fault flooded him, soaking his soul in anguish.  She was an innocent.  She didn’t deserve to die for just being with Sam.  And if somehow the demon he just banished had information about why she was killed, it just exacerbated how badly he was wracked with guilt about it. 

The boys sat on Baby’s trunk on a dirt turnoff across the highway from the runway of the airport where Jerry worked.  They both felt like he had dropped a bomb on them when Jerry explained how it was he had come to have Dean’s number in the first place.  Their dad had left Dean’s number as a contact for anyone trying to reach John for help with cases.  The boys were floored with the news. 

Dean tried their father’s number again and the boys put their heads together to listen to his message.  It did indeed explain to anyone calling that they should instead call Dean for help.  Sam fought back tears of frustration and confusion.  Neither man understood their father’s motives and the pain of feeling deserted by the one person who was supposed to help them, and look out for them weighed heavy on the brothers as they climbed back into Baby and took off, leaving the airport behind, but not the emotions the ordeal had caused.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you are enjoying reading this as much as I have been in writing this series. I still can't believe there is no sex yet, but at least there was a mention of a boner in this one. 
> 
> I found this episode particularly challenging at first, I think because it is one of the few I have only seen it a couple of times before this viewing. So I wasn't sure if there was much Wincesty goodness to work with, but low and behold the boys never let me down. 
> 
> I cannot thank you all enough for the comments on this series. I truly appreciate every word of every comment. It makes all this even more special for me! (Watching and writing the boys is always payoff enough but every comment and kudo makes my heart sing, so THANKS!!!)
> 
> I am off to work on episode 5...


End file.
